Red Velvet Cake {Special Edition: Denver Broncos}

First and foremost please allow me to say....

  

GO BRONCOS!!!

In honor of my favorite football team, the Denver Broncos making it to WINNING the AFC championship and heading to the Super Bowl, I turned one of my favorite cake recipes into a special orange and blue edition to celebrate!

 This is still technically red velvet cake. It tastes the exact same, the food coloring is the only thing that has been changed. It's still moist, delicious and has a perfect hint of cocoa and almond flavoring which all add up to make this my favorite.cake.ever.

Here is my DISCLAIMER:

I've never, in any sense of the word, claimed to be a cake decorator. I am definitely NOT skilled in the area of making cakes look pretty, only in the area of making them taste good. So I can totally promise you that this will look taste magnificent.

This recipe is an old family favorite, from the cook book called The Feed Bag by Ann Galles and Karla Dundas whom I am lucky enough to call family. It is simple and never fails. My husband's grandma even has "famous" red cake recipe that she has made for ages and my mother in law said that this one is just as good...almost as good ;-)

 

 RECIPE

1/2 cup margarine 

1-1/2 cups sugar

2 T cocoa powder

1/4 cup red food coloring (yikes)

*make a paste with the above ingredients and then add:

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 T vanilla extract

1 T almond extract 

1 T white vinegar

2-1/2 cups cake flour

*mix well 

Preheat oven to 350. Grease & flour two, 9" cake pans (I line the bottom of mine with parchment paper, it makes it sooo much easier to get the baked cakes out of the pans)

Bake cakes 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out nearly clean. Cool cakes on a wire rack while you make the frosting.

We've gotta have a chat about the frosting. Pretty much everybody thinks that red velvet cake should come with cream cheese frosting. I used to be one of those people; but let me just tell you that is incorrect. Yeah cream cheese frosting is delicious and I could eat it by the spoonful on dang near anything but the traditional icing on this cake shall not be tampered with, kapeesh?

 

For the frosting, heat 1 cup of milk in a sauce pan on low-medium heat. Whisk in 5 T of all purpose flour. Cook, stirring constantly until thick (you want this thicker than brownie batter). Let the mixture cool to room temp. Meanwhile, beat 1 cup of room temperature butter with 1 cup of granulated sugar until light and fluffy. 

*The key to this frosting is beating the living daylights out of it*

Add the cooled milk/flour mixture to the butter/sugar mixture and mix on high until light and fluffy. You do not want this frosting to be thin and grainy; if that's the case...turn it back on high and keep at it until it is smooth and creamy!

 

I cut each of my 9" cakes in half horizontally and make a thin, 4 layer cake. If this is out of your comfort zone, just skip it and make a 2-layer cake.

Obviously you can use your brain and figure out that I swapped the red food coloring for orange, and turned some of the frosting blue. I suppose you could do this with any combination of colors you want...just beware that the cocoa powder in the cake won't mix well with certain colors. 

Also, I suggest making this cake a day ahead of time, for some reason it just gets better over night :-)